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These essays appeared in the Fortnightly Review at various times between the spring of 1865 and the first month of this year. I much wish that I were able to recast them, for such a series must have many defects when presented as a continuous book; but many occupations forbid me to hope that I could accomplish this within any moderate limits of time, and as the opinions here set forth (whatever may be their value) have at least cost me much time and thought, I venture to publish them in the only form I can.

The arguments of the first essay, if it had been re-written, might have been exceedingly illustrated by the present contest between the President and the Congress of the United States: but I leave it to stand as it was published a few days after Lincoln's death, when Mr Johnson was said to be a violent anti-Southerner, and no such quarrel was thought of. There is a just suspicion in the public mind of principles got up to account for events just occurring; and I prefer to leave what I wrote as it stood, when no such events were looked for.

As these essays once or twice allude to events passing when they were first published, it may be well to give the dates of their first appearance.